Maximum Energy Harvest from a TCT Connected PV Array under Non-homogeneous Irradiation Conditions

Partial shading in photovoltaic (PV) array causes mismatch loss and reduces power output. To dilute the concentration of partial shading effect on the array, a novel module relocation technique (MRT) is proposed to improve the power output of the partially shaded PV array. In this proposed technique, the physical position of the modules in totally cross-tied (TCT) configuration are reallocated without disturbing the electrical connections of the modules. The position of module in an array is obtained using the proposed generalized mathematical expressions. The proposed scheme is one-time arrangement at the time of installation, which does not require any sensors, switches and control algorithm. The simulation results obtained from the proposed configuration are compared with different existing configurations. Also, the performance of the proposed configuration is verified theoretically, in simulation and experimentally for various partial shading conditions. From the results, it is noticed that the performance enhancement (PE) of the proposed configuration ranges from 8.37% to 29.64% of given static shading conditions. As a result, the mismatch loss is minimized, which ranges from 1.10% to 3.06%. Finally, the probability of PE in the proposed configuration with respect to Tom-Tom configuration for three hundred random shading patterns is carried out.